


Arise and Fall Away

by OffCenter



Series: Complications [3]
Category: Moonlight (TV)
Genre: F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2008-05-30
Updated: 2008-05-30
Packaged: 2018-03-31 17:24:09
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,751
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3986509
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/OffCenter/pseuds/OffCenter
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Simone's questions for Josef triggers an overdue conversation.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Arise and Fall Away

"And she won't stop asking me what changes it's made to my – and I quote – _relationship_ with you." Josef sips his drink, looking pissy. "I'm sure Beth must be putting her up it. What do they talk about on these girls' nights out, anyway? Make it stop, Mick." He sounds plaintive even to himself.  
  
"You really think either of us could tell Beth what to do? You've met her, right?" Mick tries to laugh it off, but he feels uncomfortable and – what he hates more – insecure. Josef doesn't notice. Mick starts to add something but stops himself, and looks down instead, picking at a frayed patch on his jeans.  
  
Josef's certain Mick's laughing at him, damn it, and he does _not_ want to be having this conversation, but if Mick would just talk to Beth.... He glares at Mick, who jumps and swallows audibly. Josef grumps, "I _don't_ want to talk to her about 'changes'. I don't want her getting... ideas. This needs to stop. I can't –" he stops as the door clicks open, admitting Beth.  
  
"Hey!" she says in greeting, smiling and then hanging up her coat. She looks at them then, pausing when she takes in Josef's angry face and Mick's – what's wrong with Mick? "You guys need some space? I could go over to the office and catch up on reports or something."  
  
Mick shakes his head, holding out his hand. She comes and takes it, leaning over and kissing him before settling in next to him on the sofa. "Josef has a question for you, actually." And damned if Josef doesn't have a combination deer-in-the-headlights and pissed-as-hell look on his face in response to Mick's words.  
  
He growls and starts to stand and Beth says quickly, "You can ask me anything you want. I might not answer if it's too personal, but you can ask."  
  
To his own surprise, Josef takes her at her word and sits down again, looking at her intently. "Do you and Simone talk about me?"  
  
That surprises her. "Of course we do. Why?"  
  
And now he looks angrier. "And Mick?"  
  
She knows he's angry, although she has no idea why, but honestly, what does he think? She doesn't quite roll her eyes at him. "Let me think...DUH! You – _her_ boyfriend. Mick – _my_ boyfriend. Both of you vampires? Both of us human? Neither of us knowing anyone else human who's dating a vampire? Ringing any bells here?"  
  
Josef's suddenly silver-eyed, fanged, and furious and Beth leans further into Mick even before he bellows, "This is serious, Turner! Stop giving her ideas about becoming a vampire! You know what I've been through!"  
  
What? She missed and step, she's sure. Mick's arms tighten on her and she looks up at him, confused, but he's visibly upset and gestures back at Josef. No help there.  
  
She takes a breath and lets it out, slowly, before answering him. "What gives you the idea I have anything to do with it? I'm not the one she... she cares about. You are." It's not her business to tell him exactly how much Simone cares, and she won't betray that confidence, but she's shocked that he thinks this is new or caused by anything but Simone's own desires. "And it might interest you to know that the idea of being changed is still terrifying to me, thanks just the same, so I'm certainly not going to tell her it's a good idea." He shifts back at her words, studying her intently. Her heart's still racing a bit from his shouting, but he doesn't think she's lying.  
  
"Mmm. So why does she keep asking me how changing Mick back affected both of us?"  
  
"You could try asking her," Beth points out. And she knows she's probably too curious for her own good, but can't help asking, " _Did_ it change things?" She includes both of them in her question. Josef answers, still sounding irritated.  
  
"To quote you, 'duh'. Any time you exchange that much blood it affects you, whether you're changing a human or exchanging blood with another vampire. I'm not his sire, Coraline is, but things still changed."  
  
"What changed? Good changes? Bad ones?" Josef recognizes Beth going into reporter mode, heaven help him. He looks over at Mick, hoping for help in changing the subject, but instead he sees an almost desperate curiosity in Mick's eyes. He's honestly surprised to find out it goes both ways – Mick hasn't said a word, but then neither has he. Josef realises they really do need to talk about this, and he'd much rather do it alone with Mick. But he can tell Beth's already forming more questions in that far-too-quick brain of hers. And really, left up to the two them, they'd put it off forever.  
  
He's still considering how to answer when Mick speaks. "I'm very aware now of where he is in relation to me. I know he's on his way up here long before he's even in the elevator; I know if he's in his office or not if I drive by it; I know before I get to his place if he's there. When we were fighting Anders and his goons I knew what he was doing and what he was going to do next whether I could see him or not. I know where he is in a crowd – like at the party last week, I knew the whole time where he was, whether he was in the ballroom, in the conference room, off with Simone. Even that big ballroom, I knew where in the room he was relative to me."  
  
"Wow." She's clearly trying to process that. Who knew giving her an answer she didn't expect could shut her up?  
  
Josef hopes that'll work for him as well. "I was already pretty aware of where he is – it goes with being older. It gets easier and easier over the years to keep track of the vampires you know, and the better you know them, the easier it is. For me the biggest surprise was that more of the sire relationship came through, and I'm not sure why since he was really sired by Coraline. But now I feel more –" Josef pauses, conflicted about admitting it to himself, much less out loud, before he gives himself a mental shake and continues, "much more possessive of him, and more protective. When I'm angry with him, it's much harder to ignore the desire to dominate him, to make him submit to me and obey me, to control him. It's harder now to let him make his own mistakes. And he's not new, he doesn't need that. It's... frustrating."  
  
Josef's hope was futile, though. "So vampire and sire, there's a whole power dynamic there?" Beth is clearly back on form.  
  
"Absolutely. A new turn is dangerous, both to himself and to society – vampire society. He has to be taught to live within a new set of rules, to learn his strengths and weaknesses and how to survive. You remember the rogue?" Beth nods. "Mick nailed it when he described a new turn as a 'feral kitten'. He – or she, it's true for both – has to be socialized right away, completely controlled by his sire until that socialization takes, or he'll be a risk to all of us – and eliminated very quickly by other vampires."  
  
Beth turns to Mick, now. "Do the power issues go both ways? I mean, do you have a different reaction to Josef now?" Mick nods, looking uncomfortable.  
  
"Yeah. Especially the first few weeks, if he got pissed at me it took all my willpower to not back down and do whatever he wanted. I'd never have been able to resist it if I'd been a new turn, no way. As soon as he gets angry my instinct now is to bare my neck and submit to him and I have to fight that. It's gotten easier to resist with time, but it's still definitely there."  
  
Beth looks thoughtful, putting that together with his response when Josef was yelling. "So even though you'd already been a vampire and were already friends, something kicked in?" They both nod. "Does the relationship a human and vampire had before the turning affect it at all?"  
  
Mick shrugs, and Josef answers her. "It can. So can whether the turning was voluntary. That's probably why Mick was able to resist Coraline so easily. His turning wasn't voluntary, and by turning him she betrayed his trust. Their bond wasn't nearly as strong as it is when someone's willing, or even unwilling but without the betrayal. I turned him back when he asked me to, and we'd been friends for decades and trusted each other. Hmm. That might be why we've bonded so strongly now, because he hasn't had that before. I don't really know. Everybody else..." he cuts himself off, looking annoyed. Mick and Beth both just wait, staring at him. He finally capitulates. "Every other person I've heard of who used the cure reverted naturally." He knows just how pissed Mick is going to be before he says it.  
  
"Others? You knew about it, about the cure, about others? You told me there was no cure – you lied to me?" Beth feels Mick shaking, and wraps an arm around him.  
  
"I didn't lie, Mick. _Every person reverted_ – without being changed. It just wears off. It never lasts. Not once in hundreds of years. You wanted to be human, you didn't want to be a vampire disguised as a human for a few months. That's all it is – a very temporary disguise." Josef is intent on Mick now, ignoring Beth, calming him with words and through their new bond at the same time. "I wouldn't lie to you about a cure. There isn't one. You have my word if I ever hear of one, you'll be the first to know."  
  
Beth looks back and forth between them. She can tell something's happening, but not what. She waits until she feels Mick relax before she asks Josef, "You did something there. Was that the bond?"  
  
Josef looks at her with something very like approval. She's very quick and very bright. Relentless in the pursuit of what she wants. She would make an _excellent_ vampire. He nods in answer to her question

"How much are you controlling him?"  
  
"Not controlling. _Influencing._ I wanted him to calm down, so I sent that through the bond, and it helped him calm down. But he could've fought it if he wanted to."  
  
It's a lot to take in. Beth turns over everything he's said, thoughtfully. "So the bond is physical and ... psychic? Is it -" she pauses, embarrassed but curious. "Is it ever sexual?"  
  
Josef doesn't pull the punch. "Yes, of course; it's always sexual. It doesn't matter who they were to you before, once you're their sire, they're yours."  
  
Beth's eyes widen and she looks uncertainly at Mick. He doesn't meet her eyes, but nods. "You're _lovers_?" Her voice rises unconsciously on the second word.  
  
Josef laughs and she thinks Mick might be holding back the same reaction. "No, Beth, we are not 'lovers'. Yes, sex can be about intimacy and emotional connection for vampires. But it can also be about power and control, reward or punishment. It can be a way to reward or control your food. It can be for fun. It can be a combination."  
  
"But what about orientation? I mean, I thought you were both straight."  
  
Josef smirks at her, but gives her a surprisingly serious answer - in, of course, the form of a question. "What's the advantage of heterosexuality for humans?" She waits for him to go on, expecting a lecture, but he raises an eyebrow at her expectantly.  
  
She starts to speak, stops, pauses, than bursts out, "Oh my god, that actually makes sense. It's the norm in _us_ so that the race survives, but you don't need that – you only need us to keep breeding and providing a continuing source of blood!" Josef nods, smiling, pleased that she caught on so quickly. "But what about all the...the...oh. _OH._ Is that part of what the bond does: it overcomes the human preferences and conditioning? God, this is _fascinating."_  
  
"Yes, exactly. It doesn't matter if your sire is your previously preferred gender or not. As your sire teaches you, you'll associate sex more and more with vampire intimacy rather than human intimacy."  
  
"'Vampire intimacy'? Like drinking each other's blood?" Beth looks at Mick and he nods.  
  
Josef adds, "That's part of it, yes. Feeding and sexual pleasure are very intertwined in us."  
  
"Is that why vampires like to drink their human lovers' blood? Are you unusual, that we don't do that?" She looks at Mick and he nods again before Josef cuts back in.  
  
"He's a _freak_ , is what he is, Beth. No, no, I'm joking. Mostly. It does prove that he has freakish self-control, though. Most vampires can't resist biting and feeding during sex – or at least aren't willing to. That he both wants to and can continue to do so during a long-term relationship is fairly unheard of." He leers at her mischievously. "I wouldn't be able to resist tasting you."  
  
"Josef! TMI!" Beth wrinkles her nose at him and leans over, whacking him on the leg. "Behave!" She settles into silence for several minutes, and both men have started to relax when she clears her throat. They share a look and then both look at her.  
  
"You ducked that question quite neatly," she observes, "and bonus points for being extremely literal in your answer while giving me enough to eventually realize you were evading it. But sex. You two. Had any recently?"  
  
Josef gives her a look. "My wanting your blood if we were to have sex is TMI, but my sex life is your business now?" Beth blushes and starts to apologize, but he cuts her off. "Oh, stop it. Good to know how to make you back off, but I was actually yanking your chain. This time. You should have realised that." He sighs in disappointment, dramatically, then grins at her and continues, "Not lately, no. Not in quite a while, actually."  
  
Beth looks at him thoughtfully again. "Is that what you meant by frustrating?"  
  
Josef nods, not meeting Mick's eyes, but he can sense Mick's surprise. Mick surprises both of them by offering, "Yeah, me, too." He looks intently at Beth. "And it doesn't mean I feel any less love for you. It's just...it's there. I've been doing my best to ignore it."  
  
He looks lost, and Beth examines her feelings for a long moment. This doesn't feel threatening to her, not with knowing what's causing it, and if it's hurting them... She nods decisively and crawls into Mick's lap, straddling him and leaning her face against his. "I love you. I trust you. If this is something you and Josef need to face and work out, I'm okay with that. I think I kind of get what's going on, as best I can when I'm not one of you, and it sounds like this is... really important to both of you in a way I can't really comprehend. I don't think I'm going to be hurt by it if you need to do the whole vampire sex dominance whatever thing with him, not unless you do something like stop loving me or kick me out so you can move in with him."  
  
Mick stares at her, thrown, and when she looks up Josef looks equally surprised.  
  
"What? I'm supposed to pitch a fit because I'm not 'vampire enough'? Or because his changing you back – so that you could _save my life_ – means you two are bound together in a way I could never replace?"  
  
Mick clears his throat, feeling surprisingly awkward. "Uh, yeah, something like that."  
  
She looks at Josef, daring him to say the same, but he laughs instead, asking, "You're _sure_ you don't want to be a vampire? 'Cause I'd say you're really ready to take it on."  
  
"Nope. Still enjoying my mortality, thanks. If I change my mind you'll both be –"  
  
"– the first to know," they join in, in chorus. Beth just laughs and heads to the kitchen to scrounge a snack.  
  
Mick and Josef both look more relaxed than they had when she'd come in, and Mick looks less tense than he's been in months. She made the right decision, she can already tell. Now it's up to them.

**Author's Note:**

> Set October 2008.


End file.
